One or more aspect of the present invention relate generally to embedding a removable barcode into an image.
A barcode is often used to store information of a digital image, which includes a linear barcode (e.g., one-dimensional (1D) barcode) and a matrix barcode (e.g., two-dimensional (2D) barcode). The barcode can consist of a combination of black portions and white portions. Herein, the black portions are referred to as code areas, and the white portions are referred to as background areas. The barcode can be embedded into an image. The barcode can contain a copy prevention code and/or tracking information of the image. When the barcode is scanned or read by an appropriate electronic reader device, the copy prevention code and/or the tracking information of the image can be extracted. The copy prevention code can be used to determine whether copying of the image can be allowed, and the tracking information may contain useful information related to the identity of the owner and/or creation time of the image. However, if someone wants to use the original image, it is not easy to remove the barcode and restore the barcode-embedding area of the image for the barcode-embedding area on the image has been destroyed by the barcode.